Street tree enthusiast of the month - Caroline Buckland

Our volunteers are from many walks of life and each month we chat with one.

Caroline Buckland contacted STfL about volunteering having noticed the newly planted STfL trees during lockdown walks.  She's been an Area Rep in Brockley ever since. She says, “it was lovely to start appreciating the diversity and profusion of trees on my doorstep. Volunteering with STfL has introduced me to so many people in the area. I’d met relatively few before due to my work and social life being very central London focused.”
 
That work was, and is, publishing. Caroline is living proof that “going out for family walks” in childhood can bring benefits despite reluctance at the time. Her childhood walking was mostly in Oxfordshire and Herefordshire. She recalls being bored, perhaps not so unusual, but more surprising, being frightened.
 
“I was terrified of the burial mounds at Wayland’s Smithy on the Ridgway, which contained the remains of FOURTEEN PEOPLE!” Fortunately for us Caroline got over her fears. This month she published her first book, Hill Walking London, written for the casual walker and on offer here to STfL newsletter readers at a generous discount. More details are in the article below.
 
Caroline knows about best-sellers having worked for Penguin Random House and later at the Daily Telegraph having two Top 10 successes with  books based on the newspaper’s content. These were Am I alone in Thinking? - unpublished letters to the Editor, and Lovely Bits of Old England  - an anthology of articles by John Betjeman. Caroline admits that although the research has been fun she’s found writing her own book rather more difficult.
 
Caroline is a keen gardener and has recently enrolled in a tapestry course at Morley College, finding herself “in a group of people with serious talent”.
 
 If you like the idea of being Street Tree Enthusiast of the Month please email dom@streettreesforliving.org.

Interview and article by Dom Eliot.